In February 2021, I published a blog post celebrating the British Columbia coastline. It was a response to former Premier John Horgan’s editorial proclaiming that a “made-in-BC shipbuilding strategy” was on its way. There was nobody in a better position to make it happen. I wrote, “if this is the plan, let me know how I can help.” Four years...
Mental Health Act
Budget Estimates: Education and Childcare fails to meet targets and expectations!
https://youtu.be/GPk0PwoWkmA?si=SAvIwBUig5wb-bll For the past several years we have heard from the BC NDP government of their investments in education and childcare. At the same time, I have heard from my constituents and education professionals in Saanich North and the Islands the opposite. We are not seeing the results of the massive...
Environment minister has full control over Conservation Service. No independence, no oversight!
The BC NDP don’t want to confront the reality that their environment minister Hon. George Heyman has full control of the BC Conservation Officer Service (BC COS). As it is laid out in s. 106 of the Environmental Management Act, the service is “under the direction of the minister.” His colleague,...
Environment Minister slow in updating regulations for sampling biosolids to make sure they are safe!
I suspect the Environment Minister has not updated the Organic Matter Recycling Regulation (OMRR) over the past 15 years because of the cost. Cost of updating sewage treatment facilities to improve the quality of biosolids or safe disposal. Unfortunately, Hon. George Heyman has maintained grossly...
Confidence in public safety threatened as province continues fumbling Surrey police transition
The Surrey policing transition has been fumbled from the beginning. Public safety minister Hon. Mike Farnworth has allowed politics to lead the policy and the result has been expensive and unnecessary. Now the RCMP union President Brian Sauve is stating publicly that the Minister has issued...
BC Aviation Museum welcomes Hawaii Martin Mars water bomber to Saanich Peninsula
After many years, and several attempts, the Hawaii Martin Mars water bomber will make one final flight from its home on Sproat Lake near Port Alberni, BC, landing on the Saanich Inlet before being moved to the B.C. Aviation Museum where it will be a permanent attraction for the Saanich Peninsula...
Introducing amendment to solitary confinement policy. AGAIN!
For the fourth time I have introduced a private members bill to amend solitary confinement policy. The bill prohibits a person from being held in solitary confinement if they are pregnant, at risk of harm or suicide, have a prescribed disability or require medical observation. The bill requires the...
Indigenous jurisdiction of child welfare must include proper funding support!
For decades Indigenous child welfare has been in the hands of the provincial government. Their policies have disrupted families, separating children from their parents and extended family, and had devastating consequences. In 2022, the province made large changes through Bill 38: Indigenous...
Creating First Nations mandated Post-Secondary Institutions
There is an important teaching that once you start something that you must finish the work. In 2018, the provincial government invested $50 million in Indigenous language revitalization. It kickstarted and reinforced Indigenous language preservation and teaching. These funds were critical for...
Housing policy still fragmented with weak measures for affordable and special needs housing
The BC NDP continues to deliver fragmented housing policy, addresses part of the problem part way. The changes represented in Bill 14: Tenancy Statutes Amendment Act, 2024 and Bill 16: Housing Statutes Amendment Act, 2024 are far from the actions that are needed to support people renting in British...
Amendments to Police Act are far from transformation of policing in British Columbia
After 15 months of deliberations, hearing from more than 400 individuals and organizations, and 1400 survey responses, the Special Committee on Reforming the Police Act, tabled an all-Party consensus report on April 28, 2024. The report was comprehensive and offered a plan for implementing the...
HEY BC NDP! Are there other corrupted grant programs?
By now you have likely heard about the scandal brewing involving a grant program administered by the Ministry of Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Innovation. The allegation that has been sent to the Auditor General is that the government contractor was both adjudicating the grant applications, and...
Budget Estimates: Engaging Minister Cullen on docks in the Southern Gulf Islands
Navigating dock management complexities on British Columbia's coast is a multidimensional challenge for the provincial government. In the Southern Gulf Islands, balancing the post-moratorium backlog of pending dock applications, environmental concerns, and fostering collaborative relationships with...
MLA Column: Proposed legislation aims to protect firefighters and bear dens
I’ve sat on a lot of committees in my time as an MLA, including police act reform, freedom of information and privacy act reviews, and several hiring committees. Last summer, I participated in an all-party committee to look at how private members (all MLAs except cabinet ministers) could introduce, debate, and vote on bills or motions. Currently,...
Budget Estimates: Agriculture Minister excuses oil and gas running roughshod over ALR
For the past fifty years the BC NDP could be counted on to be the most vocal advocates of agriculture, specifically protection of the Agricultural Land Commission (ALC) and the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR). However, in my recent exchange with Hon. Pam Alexis (Minister of Agriculture) it has...
Bill 13: Amendments to allow First Nations communities to own and hold land
For more than 175 years, First Nations communities have not been able to own land in the name of their First Nation. The province is finally amending the Land Title and Property Law Acts to allow Indigenous communities to hold land as they determine is in their best interest. These changes while...
When is the health minister going to re-open Saanich Peninsula hospital emergency room overnight?
The Minister of Health, Hon. Adrian Dix, has stood in the legislature and talked about how he is spending billions more each year on the healthcare system. His budget has ballooned from $21 billion (2017/18) to $36 billion this year. My constituency email is full of stories from our constituency...
As drought grips British Columbia, why is energy minister prioritizing water/electricity for LNG?
The BC NDP government has their priorities wrong. While drought grips British Columbia the provincial government is prioritizing electricity and water for the fracking industry. In order for our province to meet CleanBC climate action targets requires electrification. Drought is causing tremendous...
Firefighters Protection Act: Taking preventative steps to protect firefighters from toxic compounds
British Columbia has been a leader in legislating presumptive clauses in the workers compensation system for firefighters that are diagnosed with certain forms of cancers. Rather than forcing firefighters to prove the cancer is a result of exposure from their workplace, we presume it is. It is a...
Regulating Artificial Intelligence in British Columbia elections
With a provincial general election just a few months away there is no discussion, or even a hint of a concern, about the potential impact that artificial intelligence and large language models on our democratic processes. As a demonstration of how powerful the tools are I created a simple prompt in...
Why does the BC NDP allow the fossil fuel industry spread misinformation about emissions?
You have probably seen the fossil fuel lobby advertising campaign with bright green bus ads and highway billboards making specious claims that BC NDP LNG will reduce emissions. It of course is nonsense. However, they are spending a lot of money promoting these misleading statements across the...
Is the energy minister going to allow BC Hydro to cut corners on transmission lines?
BC Hydro needs to build massive new transmission lines to provide electricity to the BC NDPs LNG industry in order for them to create the illusion that the fossil fuel industry is “net-zero.” In order to expedite the construction of the transmission lines BC Hydro doesn’t want to go through an...
Introducing changes to gendered language in ICE-T Act
Last Fall, while we were debating changes to the North Island-Coast Development Trust Initiative Act I asked why the Minister ignored requests from the Island Coastal Economic Trust to remove gendered language in their law? Hon. Brenda Bailey, Minister of Jobs and Innovation stated it was an...
Bill 7: Social Development and Poverty Reduction Statutes Amendment Act (2024): Entrenching poverty
The BC NDP has long promised that as social democrats they will stand up for the most vulnerable people in the province. They always point to how terrible the former government was as a way to distract from their record. This government is not seeking to eliminate poverty but rather reduce it and...
Bill 5: Child, Family, and Community Service Amendment Act (2024): Compliance with Court ruling
Following a Court of Appeal ruling that a section of the Child, Family, and Community Service Act, made in the Fall 2022 intruded to far into personal privacy the Minister has until April to make the change to comply with the decision of the court. [Transcript] A. Olsen: Thank you for the...
Introducing Wildlife Protection Act (2024): Protecting Bear Dens in British Columbia
For the third time I introduced a Wildlife Amendment Act to afford protections for bear dens in British Columbia. Premier David Eby has mandated his Minister of Water, Land, and Natural Resources, Hon. Nathan Cullen, to protect biodiversity, this includes ensuring bears have a sage place to den,...